ANCIENT EGYPTIAN FIGURE OF OSIRIS
EGYPT, LATE PERIOD, 664 - 332 B.C.
£12,600
Auction: 30 November 2022 at 14:00 GMT
Description
bronze, gold and lapis lazuli, standing deity in typical mummiform pose, holding a crook and flail in his crossed hands, wearing the atef crown with frontal uraeus and incised plaited false beard, the face with inlaid quartz eyes and lapis brows, raised on a bespoke mount
Dimensions
20.2cm tall
Provenance
Private family collection, Switzerland, since at least 1940, the piece is accompanied by a supporting letter confirming the provenance.
Footnote
Note:
Osiris is most often represented as a shrouded mummy, emphasizing his connection with the dead. He holds a flail and a short shepherd’s crook, insignia associated with Egyptian kingship, and wears a long, braided beard, emblematic of divinity. On the front of his tall crown is a uraeus, a cobra ready to spit fire at his enemies. The horns may link him with the sun god, who often appears as a ram-headed man at the end of the day and during the night.
By the first millennium B.C., statues and statuettes of Osiris were offered in profusion, reflecting both the importance of the god and a shift in how the ancient Egyptians performed certain rituals. Some of the places where statues of Osiris have been found can be identified as temples and shrines belonging to him, but they have also been found as offerings in contexts where explanations are not evident.